Imaginary Fun!

The Imaginary Zine is a 60-page old school printed zine recounting our first 10 years with some of our favorite blog posts and stories from our imaginary friends. It is extemely limited with only 333 handcrafted zines made.

It also includes a cd chock full of rare, live, or exclusive songs by some of our favorite local artists, including The Long Winters, BOAT, Tullycraft, Exohxo, Tennis Pro, Math & Physics Club and many more!

Calvin Johnson

We here at TIG have always considered the record, whether it's 7", 10", 12" or custom cut somewhere in between, a piece of art. Colored or standard black, civilian weight or hi-fi 180 gram, each record is precious. Listening to a song on vinyl creates both a physical and emotional bond to the sounds wafting from each (usually) round piece of magical plastic.

It's hard to just be a casual listener when interacting with the vinyl medium; you have to slow down and consciously listen to the record. Even when you're not listening to the record you need to lovingly care for it, respectfully storing, or in some cases displaying, your collection.

It's no secret that most folks hooked by the medium liken perusing someone's record collection akin to reading their palm. The management, care, and contents of a stranger's collection can give great insight into their… dare I say, heart. It's an open door to connect with one another, sharing stories about their favorite memories finding, listening, and sharing the sometimes smooth, sometimes scratchy depths of the vinyl grooves.

We here in Seattle are extremely lucky that the people at the Henry Art Gallery share our reverence for all things vinyl and have brought the new exhibition, The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl to Seattle. Organized by the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, The Record is "the first museum exhibition to explore the culture of vinyl records within the history of contemporary art. Bringing together 41 artists from around the world who have worked with records as their subject or medium, this groundbreaking exhibition examines the record’s transformative power from the 1960s to the present."

The Record exhibit opens this Friday, July 13, 2012 in the North Galleries at the Henry (15th Ave NE & 41st St in the University District) with the big opening night festivities run from 6pm-9pm (so still plenty of time to see the Young Evils later that night!).

The opening celebration includes live musical performances from Slashed Tires and The Hive Dwellers (Calvin Johnson's latest band); Mark Baumgarten (City Arts editor at large) will read from his new bookLove Rock Revolution: K Records and the Rise of Independent Music (hitting shelves on July 10th!); and, of course, a first peek at the exhibit.

Latest comment by: whitney Ford-Terry: "In conjunction with the exhibition The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl, Mike Dixon will be cutting a series of limited edition high-quality, 10” lacquer recording blanks, in real time, on a 1940’s Presto 6N record lathe in the Henry’s Test Site. A new ...

As we announced back in January, there's a new film which captures the first meeting of Three Imaginary Girls' very own Chris Esteyand the King of Indie, Calvin Johnson (wiki K Records, Beat Happening, all things rad)!

This meeting of the two mega-minds took place in the historic Columbia City Theater where Chris and Calvin chat and delve into their contrasting tones: Calvin's mysterious cosmos, mesmerizing baritone, and weighted works, with a concentration his latest solo incarnation ("he spits literary bop prosody in the form of three songs") versus Chris's torrential confessionals told with his signature unsurpassable jubilance that spills out like a spoken-word graphic novel (and inspired by Phil Ochs’ seminal Greatest Hits album).

Tonight (Monday, March 5th!!!) is the Seattle debut of this 35-minute filmat the Northwest Film Forum in Seattle at 7 pm. It is confirmed that both Calvin Johnson and Chris Estey will be there and Calvin will even play a couple of live songs!!!

We are always bursting with pride to count Chris Estey as a friend, let alone be honored enough to have him share his words on Three Imaginary Girls. But today, the thunderous applause coming from the imaginary office for Chris is deafening.

This morning we heard the amazing news that there are now public screenings scheduled for Have You Ever Had a Beard?, a new film which captures the first meeting of our dear Mr. Estey (wait, should we make that the title of a new advice column?) and the King of Indie, Calvin Johnson (wiki K Records, Beat Happening, all things rad)!

This meeting of the two mega-minds took place in the historic Columbia City Theater where Chris and Calvin chat and delve into their contrasting tones: Calvin's mysterious cosmos, mesmerizing baritone, and weighted works, with a concentration his latest solo incarnation ("he spits literary bop prosody in the form of three songs") versus Chris's torrential confessionals told with his signature unsurpassable jubilance that spills out like a spoken-word graphic novel (and inspired by Phil Ochs’ seminal Greatest Hits album).

The world premiere of the movie is at Portland's Hollywood Theatre on Friday February 24, 2012. Calvin Johnson (who will perform a couple of songs and answer questions) (!!!!) and directors Kathy Wolf and Pat Thomas will be in attendance.

The Seattle showing is a couple weeks later, on Monday March 5th at the Northwest Film Forum in Seattle at 7 pm. Rumor has it that both Calvin Johnson and Chris Estey will be at the Seattle showing (be still my heart!!!).

Mark your calendar!!! We'll let you know when tickets are available for advance purchase.

Ahhh... it's Monday morning... and the Monday morning after SXSW at that. Whether you just arrived back into SeaTac or where here for the sunny Saturday-ness, I am sure we have all earned our warm mug of theraputic goodness this morning.

For years I have followed Ted Leo's music. I was fanatic for a while, even. Then it came to the point where one of his songs would pop up on my iPod and it would be a pleasant reminder of why I love him so. Friday night was that reminder times a million and then some. Oddly enough, it was my first time seeing him. Neumos started out a bit empty, but upbeat local band, The Sea Navy, came out and got everyone dancing as more people filtered in. The Hive Dwellers (fronted by K Records head Calvin Johnson) followed up The Sea Navy with a set that defied the laws of most Neumos shows by not using one microphone or any fancy lighting. I can do no justice in describing what happened, you really had to be there. I'll just mention that there was a lot of hip-gyrating. A lot of it.

Soon enough, Neumos was jam-packed with die-hard indie rock fans, buzzing excitedly about their love of Ted Leo. It seems he has quite a cult following and it's really not hard to see why. Ted Leo is a great indie-rock god to believe in, a force to be reckoned with, really (but likely the nicest force you will ever encounter). I will definitely be seeing him any time he is back in the area because, I don't know about you, but I really like to get my face rocked off. ...Also, covering Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" is one of the keys to my heart.

Latest comment by: Leo Fan: "Although I agree that Ted Leo's version of Dancing in the Dark was great and helped bring out some of the true darkness of that song, it was Ted's version of the Waterboys' classic "Fisherman's Blues" that led into Dancing in the Dark that really took the cake. It ...

Latest comment by: Imaginary Jeffrey: "With just a mention of Calvin Johnson, I absolutely have to plug his solo album, What Was Me. Please, check it out if you like soulfully and woefully naked music.
Amazon's Listing.
Honestly, I can't imagine where Seattle music would be without this ...